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Digging for Railroad History at the Sioux City Railroad Museum

 The Sioux City Railroad Museum recently announced an exciting new project with the Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist, and it includes some fun opportunities for tweens, teens, and adults! Here's the full story:

a white pickax is on a yellow background. in foreground, the words "Digging for Railroad History at the Sioux City Railroad Museum"


Announcement Event

The first important thing to know about this program is that there is a kick-off event with info about the project happening at the Sioux City Railroad Museum on Thursday, July 22nd at 10am. The event will have general information about the project as well as information specifically for volunteers, a meet & greet time with several archaeologists, and opportunities for the media to interview museum representatives and archaeologists about the project. So if you are definitely interested, plan to attend that! But now, a bit more background: 


A little history

The Sioux City Railroad Museum is on a property that once served as the 10th largest railyard in the US and was home to the workshops for the Milwaukee Railroad. Recent research uncovered information about the site also being home to two labor camps around 1916-1918, but no visible trace remains...that we know of. 

The new joint project between the museum and the state archeologist will examine the Sioux City Railroad Museum with a variety of imaging and archaeological research techniques to hopefully uncover some remnants of those camps, if any remain. 

And here's the fun part:


Volunteer and Internship Opportunities

They're looking for volunteers and interns to help the trained archaeologists from the state in this huge project, and anyone 10+ can apply! I've reached out to the state archaeology office to get more details on things like deadlines, expectations, whether the internships are paid or undpaid and what sort of academic credits they count towards, because I know as a parent that stuff is important! But it can be tough to find hands-on history or archaeology opportunities for middle school and high schoolers, so I think this is pretty exciting! 


If you have any questions, please let me know and I will be sure to ask them of museum staff or the Office of State Archaeologist! 

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